TV who needs it?

Living so close to the other country with the same name in the North you would think that the military would have a little class. Unfortunately, a friend of mine that did an internship at an embassy in the Pacific was subjected to military tv; he held the same opinion.

I find it funny that the US military attempts to prove to the world that they are the best and baddest military in the world, yet they subject their troops with such stupid basic Kindergarten level propaganda.

Americans must really be stupid if they can be trained to operate ships, planes, submarines, and weapons of mass destruction, but can't buckle their freaking safety belts when driving down the road in their minivans.

OK, in all fairness I have been living overseas for several years and have received some training on cross cultural integration, but some of the propaganda they show is scandalous. Who watches this shit? It is demeaning! OK, in all fairness, it's a carrot and stick routine... I get to watch some favorite tv shows providing I can endure the propaganda... I think I am gonna cancel cable tv. Why have 27 channels when there are only 2.5 you can understand as they are in English; besides I have been living without tv for so long I guess it's the notion of tv that is irritating... Perhaps life without tv is much better?

It's #@$king Cold!!!

Wow! This is the first time I have lived in a place where there are a FULL four seasons and it is not fun. OK, Fall was cool and the colors were very pretty, but we got a cold snap over the weekend and it is now snowing outside. We don't like snow. Thank heavens for the ondol.

There is not much to say on this end. I went to the Techno-mart in Seoul to buy a wireless router; that was cool. I bought that and a hard drive enclosure for about USD$40. One of my laptops died on me so I needed the enclosure to get my data off of it before I formatted the hard drive. Fortunately I had already backed up the data so it wasn't too much trouble to retrieve the new data.

With the wireless router I will now be able to watch my media (news podcasts, movies, ect.) on one computer and surf the web on the other. So far setting it up wasn't too bad. My old Dell laptop is sill kicking, but the WIFI card is an 802.11B card so if I use it with web access I have to reconfigure the setup with a WEP key instead of using WPA to secure the access point.

Namsan Park (#15 Seoul's Best 100)

This picture was taken from the Seoul Tower on my birthday, and goes out to all of my friends from London and Paris, and my relatives from Germany. I went there with my counterpart from Canada. We had a good time, but man it was hot that day and I lost about a pound from sweating so much.

To get there one must scale Mount Namsan which is 480 meters above sea level. The tower offers a panorama view of the Han River. The Seoul Tower is a landmark that can be seen from pretty much anywhere in Seoul. It is visited by thousands of people every year and accommodates a revolving restaurant, video room, observation platform, and other facilities.

The place was freaking packed and took a lot of time to get to the top and back down. It kind of makes me wonder what the evacuation plan would be in the event of a disaster? Oh well, I have done far more life threatening things navigating the seas on trading boats in the South Pacific. I survived both so I guess it isn't that bad is it?

Traveling to Jeonju by Bus

Jeonju is literally in the sticks. It's very close to Busan and only a 2.5 hour bus ride from Singal Station to Jeonju World Cup Stadium. Instead of getting off the bus at the Jeonju Intercity Bus Terminal, I opted to get dropped off at the stadium, but that was a challenge. In fact everything was a challenge and required the help of locals and lots of charades. The trip went something like this...

Mid Day Saturday
I was originally supposed to make this trip last weekend, but Alex did not get back to me with the itinerary until late Friday evening so I decided that I'd go this weekend so I could figure out the route, and I wasn't feeling well either last weekend. After a few phone calls I worked it out that I catch the express bus from Singal Station near my house (5 min. bus ride).

As I left my house I thought that the local bus I needed to catch was outside my house, but after a brief conversation with a student at the bus stop, I walked 4 blocks to another on a different road. One thing that I discovered is that most younger people know English and are eager to practice. Granted, I will talk to anyone to get directions, but students in uniforms help the best. Four teen age girls were sitting at the bus stop near the sign I was trying to decipher to see what bus I need and they just started talking to me much to the amusement of myself and the two old ladies waiting for the bus too. After the usual pleasantries of being told I am handsome, being asked where I am from, being told that they are 14 years old, being asked what I am doing here, am I married, etc. I was escorted to the bus they were taking as it would take me to Singal Station. "OK, get off here please...We hope to see you again..." It was cute and funny.

Finally at Singal Station, I ask a man standing at the bus stop where I could buy a ticket and was ignored... Not willing to give up easily I find a woman my age waiting and attempt to get her attention in Korean; it worked. A little more broken English and charades and I am directed to a ticket booth. The advantage of getting help from Alex is that he just works it out. The problem is that I don't learn or feel comfortable, but dependent on his help all the time and that can make things a bit stressful. This time I did work it out and with limited help from him, other than one phone call to translate and explain to me why the ticket agent wouldn't sell me a ticket, I was able to secure a ticket. Turned out I was at the wrong window, but when asked the only response I got was "anyo" or "no" in English. After speaking to Alex, another agent guided me to the right window... Now I needed to find the bus stop.

After securing the ticket I walk back to what I thought was the bus stop and an older student makes eye contact with me and says, "Hi. Where are you from?" I tell her I am from America and ask if she knew where the bus stop was to go to Jeonju... We exchange a few more pleasantries then I walk 50 more feet to the stop, 20 minutes to wait. The first bus came up and I tried to get on, but it was the wrong bus... Having seen this error, she, the student that gave me directions rushed over and said that she was going home, but would wait with me until the bus comes. I actually learned something from our conversation. Koreans consider themselves one year old at birth; so if a Korean tells you that they are 18 years old, they are really 17 in western terms. In addition to this I learned that I was the first American she got to practice English with and this made her very happy. We also talked about foods like dokboki, kimbap, bibimbap, galbi, and a few others. I can't say for sure as the English was a bit awkward, but I think she asked me to have lunch with her next Saturday, but considering she is way too young it seemed better to just play dumb lost foreigner and change the subject. It worked, then the bus showed up. I shook her hand, thanked her for the help. She waited for the bus to leave and waved at me through the window as it departed... That was another cute and funny experience.

This post was more about the adventure of getting to Jeonju than anything else. I was able to see my friend from Australia that lives on the 7th floor of an apartment near the stadium. Attached is a photo of the stadium that I took from the balcony last night.

I hope all is well with you my valued readers. Please send me an email every now and then letting me know how your doing.

I AM ON A BUS

I AM ON A BUS HEADED BACK HOME FROM AN OVERNIGHT TRIP TO JEONJU. THE COUNTRYSIDE IS VERY PRETTY THIS TIME OF YEAR. I WILL SHARE MORE THOUGHTS ONCE I AM HOME.